The various types of vehicle sun screens for different applications have been proposed in the past. Some sun screens, designed primarily for rear windows of vehicles, involved a plurality of fixed louvers disposed parallel to each other so as to obstruct the sun's rays while permitting rear visibiltiy for the driver. One such louvered screen design is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,366. Other types of fixed sun screens involved the use of opaque cloth panels mounted to a vehicle window on the interior and attached by suction cups. This type of screen is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,957. Other stationary type screens included those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,103 (screen material stretched over windshield or window on the outside of the vehicle); U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,649 (specially designed U-shaped brackets interacting with the windshield mounting in a vehicle to hold a stationary screen alongside the window).
Various types of retractable vehicle screens have been developed. Some have been attached by rigid fabricated steel brackets to the vehicle interior adjacent the window and have included a screen mounted on a roller. The screen was pulled down manually or motor actuated. One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,515. Other screens, included clips adapted to engage a sun visor mounted above the driver or front seat passenger in combination with a screen and roller assembly. One such automotive sun screen is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,845. Still other sun screens provided reversible brackets to allow a roller mounted screen to be pulled downwardly to cover the window or allowed an alternative mounting of the roller adjacent the bottom of the window which required the screen to be pulled up to cover the window. Such devices were directed to substantially planar side windows of an automobile. Such a shade is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,155.
Various screens have been proposed to address the problem of mounting a frame to accommodate curvature of a vehicle window. The curvature in some vehicles being more pronounced than others, made it difficult in the past to provide a retractable screen to cover curved windows such as windshields in many different vehicles and yet be easily secured to the curved glass or curved frame adjacent its periphery. One proposed solution has been to employ a plurality of screens extending horizontally from the mid-point of the windshield and extending laterally to opposing edges adjacent the vehicle doors. Such a device employed a housing with spring bias tabs on one end which were designed to extend between the molding of the windshield and the glass, and a tab at the opposite end for extension between the glass of the windshield and the dashboard of the vehicle. Such screens, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,881 had several drawbacks. For one, the housing which extended vertically in the middle of the windshield greatly reduced visibility through the windshield. Additionally, the horizontal extension of both screens was cumbersome for a driver to operate, especially the segment of the screen covering the passenger's side of the windshield.
The apparatus of the present invention addresses the problem of readily mounting a retractable screen assembly to a curved windshield or other window of the vehicle. The apparatus of the present invention is designed to be interchangeably used in any vehicle independent of the degree of curvature of the window to which it is mounted. A retractable screen is provided so that the assembly can be retained in the mounted position for further use without blocking the driver's field of vision while the vehicle is underway.